Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card — Capturing ‘Sakura’!

My sentiments exactly Kero-chan. Here’s me and mine with another batch of episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card. Thatbeing my first impression of the show, and this is this review. Got that?

[Episodes 5-7] Probably not in that order.

Episode five was basically Sakura going to see sakuras. Sakura and her friends including their new friend the transfer student Akiho, went to a flower-viewing picnic (also known as hanami). During the picnic a certain card seem to want the attention of our heroine. It wasn’t even a funny scene, but I was laughing about the whole ordeal. It would have been a filler episode if not for the appearance of a card who might as well have shouted to Sakura: I’m here, pay attention to me! How rude of the ‘gravity’ to pull Sakura away from her friends. A certain quote just came to mind:

“You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn’t care.”

But even more fantastical is how the squad seemed oblivious to what is happening, except of course for Tomoyo. Probably because this could have been a filler episode, the difficulty of securing the card was not that high.

No worries Tomoyo-chan, we love your singing here anyway.

Tomoyo’s biggest problem yet in the previous episodes and even until now is missing Sakura’s cardcapturing scenes, since she made it her mission to also secure every moment through her camera lenses. Also, Tomoyo as it turned out was one of the major contributors to the Daidouji family business with her ingenious ideas about technological products. But of course, she’s doing all this for the sake of her art, which is as we all know – capturing sakura. So as not to miss so much of Sakura, she introduces her prototype flying camera which is also know as a ‘drone’ to the real life modern world. The beauty of this is that it highlights how the show has completely adapted to the current modern technology trends while also providing a solution to the character’s problem. Way to go Tomoyo-chan!

Another recipient of the Daidouji generosity is the ever gluttonous Keroberos, with his camera phone and headset. He can even make video calls with Yue and take selfies to send to Spinel.

As we are on the subject of this yellow beast, I’d like to take this moment to appreciate the ‘Kero’ moments of the episodes. When I first watched the first four episodes, the scene stealer was Tomoyo-chan and her lines, and it is still partially true until Kero appeared in episode six. My focus shifted to Kero as he steals some of the moments even just being his usual self:

Sakura mentions the new girl Akiho and told Kero that she was the one who made the sweets. Kero then exclaimed: All right! She’s a great girl! I couldn’t agree more, Kero-chan. Anyone who loves sweets as much as Kero and I would definitely think someone who could make them is godsend.

Kero’s narcissism provided a bit of hilarity in this episode where nothing much is happening…yet.
Sakura:
Uhh… use the camera on you smartphone, maybe?

Kero: “Then you’d never have to miss a shot of my good looking face.”

Another funny scene was when Kero teased Syaoran caring only about the cards and said, “If Yue were here, he’d slug this kid a good one.” I don’t think Yue will, but it is still hilarious to me.

There were also a lot of firsts on these episodes. We finally get to see Keroberos in all his beastly glory even if only to prove how good looking he is to Meiling. Another first is the appearance of Meiling even though just on a video call with Sakura. Then Syaoran, who has been lying low the first few episodes and is somewhat suspicious at times, finally shows us something other than his smooth lines to Sakura. He plays the piano which is still to Sakura’s benefit mind you. The boy keeps getting cooler in her eyes. This was during Tomoyo and Akiho’s mini concert and the discovery of another card – Record. That priceless moment when you realized Beethoven changed position after Record was captured.

But wait, there’s more. After the group decided to do a practice test, and the Record card and its uses were unveiled, another card makes its appearance. At the threat of a new and unknown card, Syaoran draws his sword from his palm and demonstrates a bit of his flashy moves (and we all go woaaah kakoii!), but then that’s all we got really. It was all up to Sakura as she made use of her card Action and then the cool use of the Gravity card. All her efforts turned futile since it had to be the first ever card to be secured willingly or if I must specify, through diplomatic means – it was the Flight card.

It is also an interesting point that some of the cards have a personality of their own as opposed to just forces of nature bent on destroying everything or wrecking havoc everywhere. I don’t know about the other cards but in these episodes it was clear that Gravity might be the attention seeker (pull of gravity and all that), Flight would be the most free and peaceful loving, and Record would be the efficiently stoic recordkeeper.

Tomoyo finally meets her rival!

And even though the Record card presented itself as a worthy rival to Tomoyo, her resolve did not falter as she declares that, “Capturing it with my own hands and eyes, is the only way I can say I’ve truly captured the real Sakura-chan’s cuteness.” Gotta admire that dedication. If Sakura is dedicated on capturing the cards, Tomoyo is definitely set on capturing her. So, who’s the real winner here? All that cuteness for Tomoyo-chan’s eyes afterwards.

What about our cloaked friend?

The mystery of the hooded figure continues and some details were added to it. When before there were glass breaking and key snatching, this time Sakura’s vision shows the presence of some clockworks. The presence of the clocks could mean that there is a time limit to Sakura’s new cardcapturing or something related to time. I’m grasping at straws here for sure. An alternate reality could also be one theory if I am going along with my previous guesses, and that space is the neutral zone, while the hooded figure belongs to another timeline.

All in all, these episodes provided relief for me and allowed my tiredness to go away by basking in the cuteness of them all. The most interesting part of these episodes was of course the cards themselves, but there were moments that Kero and Tomoyo really outdid themselves.

Looking forward to meeting more cards! Hopefully in future episodes Syaoran gets to shine too, and I’m not talking about his piano skills.

3 thoughts on “Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card — Capturing ‘Sakura’!”

Although I try my best to watch anime I never get time to. But this one I will watch. Cardcaptor Sakura was a huge part of my childhood and now 10+years later here they are with the sequel! It sounds interesting and I will give give it a try! Great post btw!